Chapter 44 Samkiel #2
Kaden sat in that corner with his hands resting over his knees, watching us toss words like a ball.
My blood boiled at the sight of him. I hated that he was alive.
Even sitting and at ease, he was a formidable figure, and he had no hesitation in forcing those under his command to bow to him.
I didn’t know how I hadn’t seen it before.
His resemblance to Unir was uncanny, and I hated that we had that in common.
It was another slice on my soul, adding to the pain of the festering wound my father had left.
He had lied and kept so many secrets, and even in death, I could not forgive him.
Trust was such a fragile thing, and once broken, it was nearly impossible to repair.
Kaden’s gaze locked on our hands. I wondered if it bothered him seeing how she so naturally reached for me, eagerly accepting my touch.
Did the sight of her ring, the symbol of our connection and love, burn him?
I hoped he felt it like a rusty, jagged blade in his gut. I hoped it felt like acid in his veins.
“This isn’t a bargain. I am not really giving either of you an option,” I said. When Kaden stayed silent, my gaze swung to Isaiah. “I regret to inform you, but this is not a democracy.”
Isaiah laughed, preparing another insult when Kaden said, “I’ll go.”
“Are you serious?” Isaiah gaped at him.
“Yes,” Kaden said. “I have no more ill will toward any of you, let alone Dianna.”
I scoffed. “And why should we believe you? You’ve done nothing since the beginning but hurt her and try to take her from me.”
Kaden’s eyes locked onto her again, and I stepped in front of her, trying to block her from his view. My Dianna was strong, but to be in the presence of one who had caused so much pain would wear on anyone, no matter their strength.
“Do you know what happened on that battlefield? What happened at that eatery?” Kaden asked.
“You mean when I killed you?” I asked. “Apparently, nothing, since you are here.”
“You have no idea what you wield. What power you created.” Kaden let out a dry laugh, but the edges of his mouth tightened in pain.
“You completed your mission. You did exactly what you set out to do. Oblivion ran through my throat, and I died. You killed me. There was nothing, no noise or light, no pain, nothing. I no longer existed.”
The room grew deathly quiet. Even Isaiah remained silent, listening intently as if he did not know this already.
“I don’t want pity,” Kaden said, glancing at me. “But I will offer you my help, unburdened of ill intentions, in exchange for Isaiah’s life.”
“What?” Isaiah and I snapped at the same time.
Kaden only stared at me. “That’s your whole thing, isn’t it? Peace and justice for all? That’s what I want. Kill me again when it’s done or torture me until your heart’s content, but I want Isaiah’s freedom.”
“You’re out of your godsdamn mind.”
“Perhaps, but that’s what I want. Do it and release him after. I swear to you he’ll never bother any of you ever again.”
I laughed, a full, aching laugh as I tilted my head back. Dianna did not. She only stared at Kaden or the shell of the once formidable man.
“You cannot be serious?” I asked once I got my mirth under control.
He just stared at me.
“You think you deserve freedom after this is over? After everything you’ve done? Taken? Maimed and killed? You took Dianna’s sister from this world, and you think I’d spare your brother? You mistake just how far my kindness stretches. If you think—”
“He’s telling the truth.”
My head whipped toward Dianna. If I didn’t feel her assurance through our bond, I would assume she hadn’t even spoken. Her hand tightened on mine as she stared at him with intense burning hatred.
“What?”
“He is,” she said.
“He’s a liar, Dianna,” I snapped, waving my free hand toward him. “He has taught us that over and over. It is a fact. He is incapable of truth or remorse.”
Dianna’s eyes cut to mine. “And I’m telling you, he’s not lying right now.”
My nostrils flared as I regarded her for a long moment. I gently gripped her elbow and backed her out of the cell, leading her from the dungeon. As soon as the door shut behind us, I turned her toward me.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice low.
“He’s telling the truth,” she said again. “I know Kaden. I know when he lies, and he’s not now. He would truly let you do whatever you wanted to him after the bond breaks. I think he intends to force Isaiah into exile.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked. “After everything?”
“Because I can feel it. Him,” she answered truthfully, making my blood boil again.
“What do you mean you can feel him? Do you have feelings for him?”
A look of pure disgust suffused her face. “Gods, no.”
I couldn’t hide the relief that flooded me, but he had tried to use that blade on her. What if he had nicked her, and we had missed it?
“Not like that, but …” She shrugged. “Maybe I have been … aware of him this whole time. I knew something was off after the attack, and now it makes sense. I felt him when he came back like a tether snapped back into place, and I feel him now. He’s not lying, and he feels different.”
I bit my tongue to keep my emotions in check. No matter what, I could not escape this man. I folded my arms tightly over my chest, trying to keep myself from storming back in there and beating him bloody for once again daring to have a hold on her.
Dianna closed the distance between us and placed her hand on my face, turning me toward her. The rage threatening to boil over cooled beneath her touch.
“It’s not like us or what we have. I don’t feel him like that.
” She gave me a small, even smile. “I did not show you my past with him because I still have feelings for him. The only emotion I feel toward him is hatred, and it is raw and aching, a constant ache that carries Gabby’s name.
I showed you so you would understand everything fully because I trust you more than anything.
Love you more than anything. All of my love, all I am, belongs to you.
Forever. Soul or not.” She raised onto her tiptoes, slanting her lips over mine before pulling back and dropping her hand.
“I feel Isaiah, too. His anger and hate.”
I couldn’t help the groan that left me. “I hate this,” I replied viciously. It wasn’t directed at her, but at the situation. “I don’t want you to feel any of them at all.”
Dianna didn’t falter under my anger, her smile only widening a fraction as if she enjoyed my jealous rage. She swept her hand down my chest, petting me soothingly, stalling the storm rising beneath my skin again.
“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” she said.
“Why now?” I asked. “Why not before?”
“I was thinking about that, too. I think it may only be intense emotions. Or because we have seen Death. Maybe that old bastard did something to trigger it. Right now, out here with you, I only feel you and your power and quiet, lethal rage.”
My jaw clenched hard enough to crack my teeth.
“I am so sick of everyone trying to take you from me. My dead father, Gathrriel, and now even Death thinks he has some claim. On top of all of that, fucking Kaden is back making eyes at you.” She giggled, and I ran a hand over my face in frustration. “It’s not funny.”
“Oh, but it is,” she said. “Do you really think anyone has the power to take me from you? I like to stroke many things on you but not your ego, so trust me when I say there is no force as powerful in these realms or the next as you, my love.”
The corner of my lips rose. “Oh, I do like that. Do it again.”
She playfully popped my biceps. “No.”
I only snorted before running my thumb under my lip. “How do you feel about solitary confinement? I’ll just hide you away and keep you all to myself.”
Her brows rose with a playful smirk playing on her lips. “Planning to tie me up again?”
Heat coursed through my blood, but not in anger as the image of her bent over and bound as I drove inside of her flashed through my mind. “That wasn’t what I was thinking about, but it is what I am thinking about now.”
She laughed.
Lowering my head, I rested my forehead against hers.
“Dianna, I know I’m being irrational and emotional, but I cannot control that part of myself when it comes to you.
I haven’t been able to since we met. I just don’t like either of them tied to you in any way, especially after all they have done.
What about what you feel when you’re near him? ”
“I just said—”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Her eyes grew dark. She’d shown me her grief back on the remains of Rashearim.
We had worked through it together, and I had pulled her back from that brutal, violent edge.
Through screams of pain and overwhelming anger, we had fought to purge the wound enough that she could finally start to heal.
I knew that just being near him caused her to hurt.
It was impossible for her to look at him and not think of her sister’s last moments.
He couldn’t kill her because of the cursed tether between them, but there were fates far worse than death.
“I love my sister, and I know he took her, but we have more important things to worry about right now.” She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, the shine of tears glazing her eyes.
“It hurts. It always will, but I have you, and there is nothing I fear when you are with me. Not even a broken heart.”
I leaned forward to brush my lips over hers. “I will protect all of you with my life.”
“I know, my love.” She smiled up at me. “I don’t like them being tied to me, though,” she said, blowing out a breath and pulling back. “But I will admit, I am more nervous as to why?”
My head turned toward the door to the dungeon. “As am I. What makes Death so afraid that he not only resurrects Kaden, but ties them to you so I won’t kill them?”
“I don’t know, and that worries me more than him being alive.”
“It doesn’t matter. They won’t be for long. The second that mark or tie between you three is lifted, I’ll kill him again.”
Dianna smiled, but I saw the pain and grief she hid behind it. If they were not bound now, I’d run that blade through him again and again until he felt even a fraction of the pain he’d caused her.
“I love you.” She clasped my hand, running her thumb over my knuckles. “Don’t worry about me.”
A weak snort left me. “Oh, akrai, you are far too late for that, my love. It’s practically my job now.”